


Penalty Dinner

by amidtheflowers, AnnieMar, leftennant, Sigridhr



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: a ficlet for the clue event, clue, darcyverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:27:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25229050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amidtheflowers/pseuds/amidtheflowers, https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnieMar/pseuds/AnnieMar, https://archiveofourown.org/users/leftennant/pseuds/leftennant, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sigridhr/pseuds/Sigridhr
Summary: There's a murder in the Avengers Tower, and it's up to Darcy to figure out whodunnit.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 38
Collections: Darcy With the Pen in the Discord





	Penalty Dinner

**Author's Note:**

> A ficlet that stood as an introduction for the Darcyverse Mystery Drabble Event, that ran July 11-12, 2020 by the mods of the Darcyverse discord server.

_ You are cordially invited to the Penalty Dinner _

_ On account of having pissed me off.  _

_ -Tony Stark _

It was a dark and stormy night...Tony Stark’s currently least-favourite Avengers sat for dinner in the Avengers tower having no fun at all. It was by far the worst dinner party Darcy had ever been to. But that was unquestionably the point, given Tony had sealed the most unlikely (and in some cases unlikable) people in the Avengers initiative together in his locked tower and gone out for a fancy date night with Pepper, leaving them to glare at each other over entrees and listen to Loki complain endlessly about sauce. 

By the time they got to dessert, everyone in the room was ready to kill at least one other person (including Darcy), and no one was enjoying the Bread and Butter Pudding. When the lights went out suddenly, Darcy was - frankly - relieved. At least, until Loki screamed. It was a high pitched sort of scream that she wouldn’t have expected from him, but it was also a scream of absolute terror. The terror was contagious, and pretty soon everyone was stumbling around in the dark, faceplanting into the Riesling and generally falling on their faces. Carol, snapping her fingers began to glow an eerie gold and Wanda an even eerier scarlet. 

“I hate you all,” Darcy said, holding onto her shin which had expertly found the table in the dark. 

“Where’s Loki?” asked Bucky, who managed to sound both like he couldn’t care less and like he expected Loki to launch himself out of the fruit salad at them. 

The lights flickered back on, JARVIS whirring back to life with an unsettling hum. 

“My apologies,” he said, atonally. 

“Stark has got a lot to answer for,” grumbled Steve. 

“Not the least of which is the Salmon,” said Valkyrie drily. “Honestly, hollandaise?”

“What is it with you Asgardians and sauce?!” snapped Clint. “And Bucky’s right, I’d like to know where Loki is.” 

“Loki,” said JARVIS helpfully, “is no longer on the premises.”

“How come he got to leave?” asked Carol. 

“His corpse is presently decorating the foyer,” said JARVIS, even more helpfully. 

“His what?” said Wanda. 

“Body,” said JARVIS, “remains, cada---”

“Yes, thank you,” said Wanda, “I know what it means. Why is it there?”

“That I cannot answer,” said JARVIS. “My security feeds were disabled.” 

“Of course they were,” muttered Steve, who did sound a bit like he was approaching apoplexy.

“The building remains sealed, no one has entered or left,” Jarvis added.

“Convenient,” said Natasha. 

This, Darcy thought to herself, was the moment she’d been waiting her whole life for. Granted, she hadn’t really expected it to happen, but a lifetime of Agatha Christie novels and Sherlock Holmes series had been leading, inexorably, up to this point. It was clear now, what she had to do.

“Guys,” she said, with all the dignity a person who had read Murder on the Orient Express more than five times could muster, “it’s time to split up and look for clues. The murderer is one of us.” 

She could hear Clint facepalming from the far side of the room.

He could facepalm all he wanted, that just meant more clues for her. The first rule of investigation was to leave no stone unturned. That meant everyone was a suspect: even Clint, with his facepalming, Steve with his extremely tired dad expression, Bucky who seemed to be chugging milk in an effort not to snap, Wanda who sat glowing furiously, if a bit worriedly in the corner, Carol who was chucking nuts at Valkyrie who was trying to catch them in her mouth, or Natasha, who had been exceptionally quiet throughout, and seemed to be eyeing the door in a way Darcy considered fairly reasonable. If Natasha hadn’t killed him, she was probably Darcy’s best ticket out (or even if she had. Did plucky girl detectives help murderers get away scott free in exchange for getting out of the worst dinner party slash murder ever?).

But most of all, she couldn’t rule out Loki himself. She’d heard the stories. He was probably the most likely suspect to his own demise.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Colonel Mustard in the Billiards Room with the Revolver](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25230391) by [Meilan_Firaga](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meilan_Firaga/pseuds/Meilan_Firaga)
  * [Detective Darcy](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25743784) by [Glory_Jean](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glory_Jean/pseuds/Glory_Jean)




End file.
